Strange New World (episode)
An Enterprise landing party believes T'Pol is conspiring with a species of rock creatures on a strange class M planet. Summary While headed for an unnamed nebula, ''Enterprise'' unexpectedly passes an unknown planet with an Earth-like atmosphere and surface. T'Pol designates this type of planet as Minshara-class. Sensor scans of the planet reveal no sign of intelligent lifeforms. An away team comprised of Captain Archer, T'Pol, Reed, Trip, Travis, Cutler and Novakovich travels to the surface by shuttlepod. After a few hours of exploration, the captain and Reed return to the Enterprise, while the rest stay on the surface overnight for scientific investigation (though Trip and Travis stay more for personal interest). After some time, a storm emerges and the surface crew needs to take shelter in a nearby cave. While T'Pol and Trip are discussing how to settle in the cave, Novakovich notices movement in the back of the cave. When Travis goes back to the original camping site to recover food which they had forgotten, he as well sees a few seemingly humanoid lifeforms wandering around outside. As he tells this to the rest of the crew on his return Novakovich seems to lose his mind and runs away out of the cave. Trip and Travis try to follow and search for Novakovich, to no avail. However Trip briefly notices a lifeform which apparently emerges out of a rock and sinks back in again. Meanwhile T'Pol has gone to explore the deeper parts of the cave, leaving only Cutler behind who does not feel at ease about it at all, and eventually decides to go after T'Pol. When she nears T'Pol, she finds her talking to a few lifeforms, but by the time the two actually meet there is no one else there anymore and T'Pol denies any meeting. They go back to the front of the cave where they meet Trip and Travis again and hear about the rock body. Cutler then tells about T'Pol's meeting but the latter denies again. The others do not believe her and are becoming suspicious about the away mission as the prolongation was specifically upon the instigation of T'Pol. The captain finally decides to get the away team back to the Enterprise but the shuttle is unable to land due to the storm. The away team is then forced back in the cave for the night. However, since Novakovich would not go in the cave with the others, it is decided to use the still experimental transporter to bring him back. The transporter is unable to distinguish between Novakovich and the plantlife being blown around him, several leaves are embedded in his skin as a result. Following that, Phlox discovers that he has been affected by a kind of local pollen brought by the storm (and that the others could be affected as well). Follows a phase where the state of all the members of the away team becoming more serious. Trip become seriously delusional and keeps pointing a phase pistol at T'Pol and shooting at the rocks. Meanwhile, on the Enterprise Phlox discovers that the pollen has a poisonous effect, creating the need to transport an antidote (as well as a sedative) to the team on the planet. The tension reaches its maximum in T'Pol and Trip pointing a phase pistol at each other. Finally, the captain, unable to reason with Trip, resorts to elaborating on Trip's delusions. This way T'Pol – who is being given instructions by Hoshi because she has fallen back to her native speech, suggesting that she has been affected as well, only able to control it better – is finally able to overwhelm Trip. She then proceeds to administer the antidote to all members of the away team, herself included. Next morning, the storm is over, everyone is fine and the planet is as beautiful as it was the day before, making the previous night look like a bad dream. Memorable Quotes "You expect us to sit up here for a week while probes have all the fun?" : - Trip "Where no dog has gone before." : - Trip, following Porthos' ebullient departure from the shuttle Background Information * In , Captain Archer's bio screen reveals that this unnamed planet, the first visited by the Enterprise NX-01, would later be named Archer IV, a planet originally mentioned as the site of a battle between the Klingons and the [[USS Enterprise (NCC-1701-D)|USS Enterprise-D]] in . Captain Archer also mentioned the planet to Captain Hernandez in 2154. * This episode marks the first time T'Pol is seen using the Vulcan nerve pinch. * This episode is the first to establish that "Class M" (as Star Trek fans are accustomed to hearing) actually stands for, in Vulcan planetary classification, "Minshara class". * Rock creatures were an abandoned concept developed for . * This is the first appearance of Crewman Elizabeth Cutler. * Cutler's biology text can be seen to list a number of Trek science concepts relating to alien life, such as Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planetary Development. * This episode was originally to have included the demise of Crewman Novakovich as the first death of a crew member from the NX class Enterprise, but while the episode was being filmed, the writers decided that, unlike many security guards on the [[Star Trek: The Original Series|original Star Trek series]], it didn't seem quite right to kill off Novakovich without dealing with the loss. Links and References Guest Stars *Kellie Waymire as Elizabeth Cutler *Henri Lubatti as Ethan Novakovich *Rey Gallegos as a crewman Aliens Mentioned/Shown *Vulcans References Archer IV; cormalite; EV pack; Florida Keys; George Webb; inaprovaline; Loracus Prime; Minshara class; Nitrogen narcosis; Omega training mission; plomeek broth; Titan; tropolisine; Velik; Vulcan nerve pinch; Y-500 class Other references Charles Darwin; Gagarin Radiation Belt; Galapagos Islands; A.E. Hodgkin; Hodgkin's Law of Parallel Planetary Development; Loracus devil mite; Loracus Prime; Loracus Prime spitting termite; Loracus system; termite |next= }} Category: ENT episodes de:Geistergeschichten es:Strange New World nl:Strange New World sv:Strange New World